Fifth, Daniel 4[:27]: “Redeem your sins with alms.”
Fifth, Daniel 4[:27]: “Redeem your sins with alms.”
§ 90. (V) “ ‘Redeem your sins with alms’ (Dan. 4:27). ‘The giving of alms frees from death, and the same is what washes away sins’ (Tobit 12:9). Therefore penitents appease God congrously [ex congruo] through their contrition and alms.”
We respond. (1) The analogy of faith teaches that the remission of sins, redemption from death, and eternal life are God’s free gift promised for Christ’s sake and are to be received by faith. Some obscure and out of place testimonies taken from the apocryphal books, such as is the book of Tobit, should not be forced against this statement, which is confirmed by so many clear testimonies of Scripture. Rather, the interpretation of these more obscure and improperly cited passages should be sought so as not to militate against the constant and clear position of Scripture.
(2) Dr. Chemnitz (Loci, part 2, ch. De paupertate, p. 419) provides several but not opposing explanations of these passages, explanations which fit the analogy of faith. He says:
Some interpret the Daniel passage in such a way that the prophet is including the doctrine of repentance, as was customary in the Old Testament. “Cease doing evil” (Isa. 1:16:); “Depart from evil and do good” (Ps. 37:27); etc. Brevity causes obscurity. But it is certain that true repentance consists of three parts: contrition, faith, and new obedience. Thus he is persuading the king to now show fruits worthy of repentance through righteousness and beneficence since he had sinned in regard to righteousness and in the plundering of his subjects. Second, it is also certain that those who turn and repent are promised the forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life. But the Gospel adds a clear and lucid explanation: that these benefits are bestowed not because of the worthiness of works past, present, or following, but freely on account of Christ. The Gospel also clearly shows that these gifts are received in true repentance not by contrition nor by the fruits of repentance but by faith alone. Even in his quite obscure brevity, Daniel expressly mentions the righteousness of faith.
These are the comments of Chemnitz. The Chaldaic word used here, פֶרֻק, fits his interpretation. It means “to break off, to cease, to remove” (Gen. 27:[40]; Exod. 32:2). “In righteousness break off your sins” [Dan. 4:27]. What sort of righteousness he means is clear from Dan. 9:7: “To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us, confusion of face.” Verse 18: “We do not present our supplications before You in our righteousnesses, but in Your many mercies.” Therefore the righteousness of faith is that through which we are freed from our sins, and we ought to prove it by love and works of mercy. Nevertheless by them we do not merit anything before God since we already owed them to God beforehand, since they are imperfect, and since there is no proportion between them and our sins.
(3) The interpretation which Brenz proposes agrees with this one. Since good works do not merit forgiveness and eternal life, and since they are not an instrument of application but rather the fruits of repentance, therefore they are said to “redeem from death” and to “free from sin” because they bear witness to faith as fruits bear witness to the goodness of a tree, and by this faith the forgiveness of sins is received and Christ dwells in hearts. Here pertains the theological rule: “Many things are said to happen at that time when they are shown to have been done” [Multa tunc fieri dicuntur, quando facta esse manifestantur].
(4) Some people understand the word “sins” in this passage to refer to the temporal punishments for sins which repentance surely mitigates. The king is not asking nor does Daniel make a response regarding a way to obtain eternal life, but rather this concerns the removal of temporal punishment. The king had been a cruel tyrant. Therefore a serious punishment was foretold for him, and the prophet is responding to the anxious king about its removal: that it can be averted through kindnesses to the poor. For the example of Ahab (1 Kings 21:27) teaches that even the external obedience of the unreborn is rewarded with temporal rewards and the turning aside of temporal punishments. Bellarmine himself (De poenit, bk. 4, ch. 8) writes about this passage of the prophet: “Some authors want to view this sentence of Daniel as disconnected and want other words to be supplied by which Daniel may have encouraged the king to repent and seek reconciliation. Then at last he would have added the words about expiating the punishment.”
(5) In the Apology of the Augsburg Confession the following interpretation is given:14 Almsgiving does not free us from the fault of past sins—the remission of which (as is the constant consensus of Scripture) is obtained solely by faith in Christ—but rather from future sins. For when good works are being exercised, sins are avoided; or God preserves His own people, lest they fall into tragic sins. In some way the statement of Cyprian (which is in [Ius canonicum,] De poenitentia, distinct. 1, c. Miror) agrees with this interpretation: “Alsmgiving frees from death—certainly not from the death which Christ’s blood once wiped away and from which He freed us by the grace of saving Baptism and of our Redeemer, but from that death which crept in later because of sins.”
(6) The book of Tobit is outside the canon; nonetheless “death” can mean temporal punishment for sins, punishments which God often removes or eases when we show kindness to the needy out of faith and love. “Blessed is he who considers the poor. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed” (Ps. 41:1, 3).